Dexter Fielding caught up with 2013 MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith during Motorcycle Live. This is what the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 star had to say...
Dexter Fielding:
Bradley Smith, it has been nearly two weeks since you completed your first laps on a 1000cc Yamaha
MotoGP bike, you, your team boss and Cal Crutchlow noted that you 'felt at home' on this bike, but what can improve for you at the next test?
Bradley Smith:
The key for me will be getting more laps under my belt and trying to understand the factors of making a Yamaha M1 work around a race track.
It is a completely different riding style to what I have been used to, learning the electronics will also take a while to suit my personal preferences, as will the Bridgestone tyres, it is just all about putting together plenty of laps in the next test and worrying about the minor details elsewhere.
So more laps, more understanding of how a Yamaha
MotoGP bike works and slowly closing the gap from 2 seconds to a bit less. If you are outside the 1 second barrier, then you are not really close enough to where you need to be.
Dexter Fielding:
Are you changing your physical training program?
Bradley Smith:
It's a bigger bike, but not much heavier than the Moto2. The move from 125cc to Moto2 was very good for me and it has meant that the transition to a
MotoGP bike is not as huge as expected.
But you notice the power, so I will be doing more swimming and gym sessions rather than endless running and cycling, working more on the strength side before the tests, then we will worry about the cardio from there on.
Dexter Fielding:
It would be fair to say that 2012 was not the way you would've wanted it to turn out - what happened with the updates?
Bradley Smith:
The new fairing was supposed to come for the rest of the season; I had it for one race, crashed it and then it went away again. The exhaust update that I thought was going to give us a better idea, didn't.
To be honest a lot of it came down to - there was cheating going on inside Moto2 this year. We were not one of those teams and we suffered for it.